- You can't fact check feelings.
- Why are there braille keys and audio instructions on a drive-up ATM?
- Who are backseat drivers going to yell at when we all have self-driving cars?
- Same vein, what will Google or Siri say when the kids keep asking "are we there yet"?
- Will the automated driver threaten to "stop this car right now" when the kids are misbehaving?
- Amazing. Ian McCaw, the former Baylor athletic director, who was placed on probation and later resigned due to the school's sexual assault scandal has a new job. He is now the athletic director at another alleged "Christian" institution, Liberty University. Are Liberty football players now allowed to rape female students?
- Are people so needy that they require "likes", comments and "shares" on Facebook?
- Please explain this to me. People who have survived some dangerous situation say that God &/or Christ was looking out for them. Often that same situation includes others who died. What was god looking at then?
- Seems like whenever government is involved in something that went awry, a spokesperson says that they followed all their procedures. Not common sense or good judgment but procedures. We probably need fewer procedures and more common sense.
- Do you ever refer to someone as "that old person" only to realize they may be younger than you?
- It always amazes me how stars of TV series can recover from life-threatening wounds in time for the following week's episode. Seem like Matt Dillon got shot two or three times a season, yet never missed a show.
- Isn't it great when you really want something to eat/drink and you're not sure if you have any in the kitchen then you find that something? It could be the last piece of pie or cake, a few spoonfuls of ice cream, leftovers from a favorite meal, the last beer in the fridge, etc.
- Of course, the opposite is also true when all of that something is really gone. Crestfallen disappointment.
wjh
A few weeks ago Kroger updated the software on their self-checkout stations. They are very annoying. By the time I can attach two reusable bags to the frames, it asks 5 or 6 times "are you using your own bags?". The attendant now has to come to your station and scan their badge to approve beer & wine purchases. It announces the price of each item and immediately tells you to place the item in the bag. On produce, when you enter the PLU # or name, it repeats every number or letter you key in. It repeats your total bill when you hit the "pay now" button and then proceeds to give excruciatingly detailed instructions on how to check out. Of course, Chatty Kroger Kathy reminds you to remove your bags and take your receipt before leaving, multiple times. Please and thank you apparently aren't in the new vocabulary.
I realize that the self-checkout kiosks need to verbalize some instructions, especially for newbies. But do they have to browbeat the customer and not allow even a nanosecond to elapse for an action to be completed before a scolding? "Resistance is futile."
I know, why don't I just go to a human cashier? The main reason is that I normally ride my bike to the grocery store. That means I have a limited amount of cargo space. It also means that the ride home is easier and safer if the load is balanced. It doesn't have to be exact, but I don't want 25 lbs. in one sack and only a bag of chips in the other. I might tip over. Cashiers and baggers have no clue about that. They are used to putting just a couple of items into those plastic bags. Besides balance, when you load up two reusable bags there is a good chance that the crushable stuff will wind up on the bottom. It gets even more crushed during a bumpy bike ride home. I don't have shocks on my bicycles.
So you see, I'm stuck between two dilemmas. I either put up with an annoying automated bitch or less than competent bagging.
The old self-checkout software was OK, only annoying at times, not always. I wonder how many marketing, design, and psychology geniuses worked on this new improved customer interface? Or maybe they just let the antisocial geek programmer in the back of the IT department write it without any input. Either way, I'm sure nobody involved with the upgrade actually uses self-checkout.
I fully realize that this is a first-world problem but hey, I live in a first-world country.
wjh
